FEEDING. 179 



much to gratify the eye. Hence the feeding suited to give the 

 one nothing but muscle is not fitted for the other, who must have 

 more hay and less oats, as well as less work. So also in deciding 

 upon the proportion, if any, of oats and beans, regard must be had 

 to the amount of work which is demanded, for there can be no 

 doubt that while admitting the good effects of beans in large quan- 

 tities upon the severely tried cab or omnibus horse, they are inju- 

 rious to the carriage-horse, whose blood soon becomes heated under 

 their constant use. Lastly, the peculiar constitution of each horse 

 must be studied before it can be known whether the average quan- 

 tity and quality of food which will suit the majority of horses 

 doing the same kind of work, will be enough or too much for him. 

 Some washy animals pass their food through them so quickly that 

 they do not absorb from it one-half of the nutritive elements con- 

 tained in it. These must be fed largely if they are kept at work, 

 and those articles of food must be selected for them which have a 

 tendency rather to confine the bowels than to relax them. Inde- 

 pendently of this extreme case it never can with certainty be pro- 

 nounced beforehand what amount of food will keep an untried 

 horse in condition, but in a large stable an average can easily be 

 struck, and it is this quantity alone which can be estimated here. 

 The blood of a horse fed on highly nitrogenized food does not differ 

 on analysis from that of another which has been kept on the oppo- 

 site kind of diet. Physiological research, however, tells us that 

 muscle is chiefly composed of fibrine, and that every time a bundle 

 of its fibres contracts a certain expenditure of this material is made, 

 calling for a corresponding supply from the blood, which cannot 

 be afforded unless the food contains it. Hence the badly fed horse 

 if worked soon loses his flesh, and not only becomes free from fat, 

 but also presents a contracted condition of all his muscles. And 

 thus science is confirmed by every-day experience, and the fact is 

 generally admitted that to increase the muscular powers of a horse 

 he must have a sufficient supply of nitrogenized food. As I have 

 remarked above, the nutrition of muscle requires fibrine but in 

 addition the brain and nerves must be supplied with fatty matter, 

 phosphorus, and albumen. The bones demand gelatine and earthy 

 salts, and the maintenance of heat cannot be effected without car- 

 bon in some shape or other. But it is chiefly with nitrogenized 

 food that we have to deal in considering the present question, 

 there being plenty of the other substances I have mentioned in all 

 the varieties of food which are not largely composed of fibrine. It 

 may therefore be taken for granted that the hardly worked horse 

 requires oats or beans, or both mixed together in varying propor- 

 tions, together with such an amount of hay as will supply him with 

 the starch, gum, sugar, fat, and saline matters which his system 

 requires, while on the other hand the idle animal does not use his 



